The Government of India has significantly expanded its efforts to strengthen the country’s cooperative ecosystem under the Pradhan Mantri Sahakar Se Samriddhi Yojana, with a focus on creating multipurpose cooperatives in every panchayat and village over the next five years.
According to the National Cooperative Database, 30,083 new PACS, dairy and fisheries cooperatives have already been registered, and 15,793 dairy and fisheries societies have been strengthened as of 15 November 2025. These newly formed cooperatives are being supported through an array of capacity-building, digital, financial and sector-specific interventions designed to make them sustainable and future-ready.
A major area of emphasis has been training. The National Council for Cooperative Training and NABARD have conducted extensive programmes for members, secretaries and board representatives of new PACS, with over 6,800 personnel trained so far. Under the PACS computerisation project, cooperatives are being equipped to adopt a unified ERP-based national software, which standardises accounting, ensures real-time data availability, and enhances operational transparency.
Support measures include training in ERP usage, webinars, helplines and manuals in regional languages. Dairy cooperatives are receiving assistance from NDDB in areas such as breeding, feed, cold-chain development and digital tools, while fisheries cooperatives are being supported by the National Fisheries Development Board through training, biofloc adoption, cage culture, and infrastructure grants.
Under PM Matsya Sampada Yojana, the NFDB is facilitating the creation of 6,000 new fisheries cooperatives, with 1,225 already receiving grants of Rs 3 lakh each across 34 States and Union Territories.
The digital transformation of the cooperative sector is a central pillar of the Ministry’s reforms. PACS are being fully integrated onto the unified national ERP platform, which features 22 operational modules spanning membership, credit, deposits, procurement, warehousing, PDS, investments, governance and audits.
This improves loan disbursal, reduces transaction costs and ensures seamless coordination with district and state cooperative banks. Parallel to this, the computerisation of ARDBs, RCS offices and multi-state cooperative registrar systems is enabling paperless and transparent processes.
The establishment of Sahakar Sarathi by the RBI enhances audit and financial management for rural cooperative banks, while the RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme strengthens customer grievance mechanisms. The Cooperative Ranking Framework launched in 2025 is further promoting transparency by assessing societies based on audit compliance, financial health and operational efficiency.
Digital inclusion is being advanced through micro-ATMs and AEPS-based banking deployed via PACS and dairy and fishery cooperatives functioning as Bank Mitras. This ensures secure, doorstep financial services for rural populations. The National Cooperative Database, now covering 8.4 lakh cooperatives, provides real-time data integration with State RCS portals through standard APIs, improving policy planning and monitoring.
To ensure viability and competitiveness, the government has introduced a wide spectrum of policy, tax and credit-related incentives. These include the Model Bye-laws, the National Cooperative Policy 2025, reforms in the MSCS Act, expanded operational flexibility for cooperative banks, tax reliefs such as reduced surcharge and MAT, and a concessional 15% tax rate for new manufacturing cooperatives. Enhanced cash transaction limits for PACS and PCARDBs have eased member-level operations.
Large-scale financial support has also been extended. A Rs 2,925 crore outlay has been provided for PACS computerisation. Under the AMI scheme, margin money requirements for PACS godowns have been reduced, subsidies increased, and additional support granted for facilities such as roads and weighbridges.
NCDC has facilitated Rs 190 crore to FPOs and Rs 98 crore to FFPOs, backed by a Cabinet-approved Rs 2,000 crore grant enabling the generation of another Rs 20,000 crore in cooperative credit. Sugar cooperatives benefit from a Rs 10,000 crore ethanol-linked loan window, interest subvention, GST reduction on molasses and major income tax relief measures. Cooperative banks have been included under CGTMSE, enabling high-risk coverage for collateral-free loans.
These comprehensive measures mark one of the largest cooperative empowerment drives in India’s history, laying the foundation for widespread rural prosperity through a modern, digitally enabled and financially resilient cooperative framework.
